Lifestyle Session - The Bowers Family

I LOVE Lifestyle Family Sessions! Especially when my clients love them too ;-)

Monday evening we had a great night for the shoot. The girls were soo cute and fun to play with. We had an absolute blast!

Thank you all for having fun with me. Here are a few images as a sneak peek for ya!

Newborn Session to Maternity Session

Last week was a crazy week. With Brayden being sick, I had to line up my priorities accordingly and he came in first place. Everything else fell behind and we are now just about caught up.

Thankfully Brayden is now back to 100%. I tried to get him to make a video this morning to thank everyone for prayers and happy thoughts, but it did not work out too well. haha. I am going to post at least some happy face pics of him.

Friday I was able to shoot a newborn and a maternity session. Sweet.

Baby G is gorgeous and cuddly. Don't ya just want to eat her up? She was born to Amy and Chris ( you can see their maternity images here). I love her hair! Thank you Amy and Chris for having me over. We created some fantastic images that you are going to love! See ya soon. Here is a sneak peak.






In the early evening I had the fortune of hanging out with one of my favorite couples, Stephanie and Jeremy. We documented their wedding last March 31, 2007. It was so great to see them again and this time, with baby on the way! These two are so perfect together. I cannot wait to meet the new addition.

We had so much fun taking some images. Here are a few for a sneak peak. Enjoy and I will see you soon! (Aren't they beautiful??)
**Update Forgot to blog this one. My favorite!**

Group hug

In the ER.

Ruled out anything serious and are heading home!!!!

Back to the hospital.

This is so not the usual Brayden. It has been 5 days and he is still
not getting better. We are heading back to the hospital. Please keep the thoughts and prayers coming.

Update on Brayden and Apple Aperture 2.1

Thank you for all of the thoughts and prayers. They are working, so please keep them coming.

Bray is coming along, but he is still pretty sick. We decided to take him back to the Dr. today because he was so lethargic. He is definitely making progress and we should see him getting back in the groove by Thursday. His little voice, 'Da Da, I don't feel good...' Man it breaks your heart when you hear it!

Apple Aperture 2.1
Well my love affair with Apple Aperture has come to an end. I was LOVING Aperture. Totally LOVING it. Until they released the update for 2.1. Now I cannot keep the application running. It CONSTANTLY crashes. To the point that it is unusable. I am so heart broken. I have begun using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom again, until they get the quirks fixed in Aperture. I have faith that Apple will fix the issues, but still need to be productive with my time in front of the computer.

Has anyone else had this experience? Do any of my blog readers even use Aperture?? haha.

Peace out.

This week's Workflow Savior:

Our Little Brayden

I came home this afternoon from a great weekend with by son Damon and the youth group. On my way home, Bridget called to tell me that the Dr. Suggested taking Brayden to Children's Hospital. He had spiked a fever on Friday and was wheezing. So she did. I was 3 hours away by car and I was not driving... Worried? Yes. Confident that he would be OK? Yes.

So I eventually got to the hospital to be with him. He was lying there with a breathing treatment and being very quiet. Bridget and my Dad were there with him. He kept saying, 'I want my daddy.' (Which made my day!)

Long story (and day!) short... It turns out that he has a little pneumonia in his left lung, an ear infection and a stomach virus! Good Lord, how can his little body handle this?? I do not know how he is doing it, but he is. We were able to bring him home and care for him here. He slept relatively well and is still sleeping. I am praying that today is a better day for him.

Brayden is our sickliest child. He is so precious and soft. He is not frail, but there is something fragile about him. We love him so much! So if you think about it, please pray for him and send good thoughts his way. We just want him to get better and back to his old self.

Here is a little iPhone picture from yesterday. He is so adorable. I love you Bray Bray!!

Out of the office :-)

I will be out of the office until Monday April 7.

I am heading on a youth retreat with my son Damon. It is called Destination Unknown, so the kids do not know where we are going! It is going to be a wonderful time. I really look forward to these trips for so many reasons. Reaching out to the unchurched, having great times and spending quality time with my oldest son. Lots of value!!!

So, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. See ya next week.

Senior Pictures

Had a great senior shoot the other night. Beautiful subject and lots of different lighting to play with. We had overcast, hard sunlight, darkness, off camera lighting and open shade. I call that Options! We will call her "J". She was awesome to work with and we know that she is going to love the images. Here are a few for a sneak peak.

Karyn & Chip Wedding - Contest Winners!

This past Saturday, my assistant, Jamie and I traveled to West Virginia to document the wedding of Karyn and Chip! Karyn and Chip were the winners of our Free Wedding Photography Contest. It could not have went any smoother! There was so much love and great relationships going on throughout the day. Karyn and Chip are so in love and were such a pleasure to work with.

Karyn's sister could not attend, because she is on bedrest due to a pending due date for her baby. They had a live webcam set up for her to view the ceremony and afterwards, Karyn and Chip got to talk to them via the webcam. Technology is sweet ;-)

I am so happy that we got to meet them and that they were the winners! It was a wonderful day and I will always cherish this day. Thank you Karyn, Chip and Families for having such a great day!

The [ b ] School

Al-righty folks (especially photographers) if you have not checked out Becker's the [ b ] school, you need to! the becker is a wedding photographer in Southern California that has been shooting amazing weddings for many years. He is hilarious and a fountain of knowledge. He has been published in major magazines and books on wedding photography.

The [ b ] school is going to be an online learning environment that will be unlike anything else out there. See the the [ b ] school blog for many tips and tidbits on photography.

I met him last year at Mike Colon's 4-day intensive, when we had a poker tournament the last night. I am terrible at poker, but it came down to Becker and me. Becker is also an excellent poker player (check becker's blog for his run at the World Series of Poker!), so he ended up smoking me. After the game we hung out a bit and talked shop. I then saw him again in Vegas at WPPI 07 and again this past week.

This year he was doing free headshots outside of Paris, so a few of us went out to get some shots and of course be entertained! He is a joy to watch work and interact with. Here is my headshot:


So a big thanks to [ b ] for the headshot and a note to all of you to check out the [ b ] school. He has posted about 60 mini videos that are filled with golden nuggets of information about business, photography & personality. I guarantee you will be entertained and more than likely become a student.

Good Night :-)

Amy's Maternity Images

This evening I shot an awesome maternity session. Amy & Chris are expecting their first child (It's a Girl!) within two weeks. This is such an exciting time for them!!

I set out to do something a little different this evening and I am very excited with the results. While I was heading out the door I decided to grab my 28" softbox and lightstand, just in case we would not have enough available light. I am so glad that I did and will not leave home without it again ! For the most part, we had plenty of light, but I decided to do something different. We went into a room and got rid of the available light and used the One Light setup. It was so rewarding to come out of my comfort zone!

A few of these were available light and a few were the "One Light" setup. Can ya tell which ones? It truly is amazing what you can do when you have your settings dialed in and move around the subject or move the light. The options are endless. We kept it super simple and created killer images.

No Photoshop required (Except for the Keyline Frame around the images and slight burning on one of the images). Aperture 2.0 was used for the edits.

Ok enough of the technical jargon and onto the pics.

Thanks Amy & Chris for having me over! You are going to LOVE the images. Here is a little sneak peak.

Photobooth Fun.

Vegas is fun!!! Most of the parties we attended had these Photobooths for all to enjoy (www.fotocabina.com). Outside of the booth there is a basket filled with props to use, which makes it extra fun ;-) I definitely had my fair share of fun in these booths! Sometimes we try to fit as many people as possible in the booth for the 4 pics. Before each shot, someone yells out "Be Happy" or "Be Cool", "Be Sad", etc... The outcomes are hilarious.

Here is a quickie of my buddy Mike Steelman and me.


If you would like to see more of these crazy pics, check out my facebook page.

Happy Easter!!!

An iPhone shot of worship this morning. Awesome!

Home from Vegas and April Children's Special!

Hi Everyone,
I am home from my Las Vegas trip and re-energized. It is so Awesome to be home with my family. I missed them so much. I did have a great time, reconnected with friends and met a lot of new friends. WPPI is such a fabulous community! If you are a photographer and never attended WPPI - Vegas, I suggest you do so. Next year it is Feb 14 - 19 at MGM. It will be fantastic.

I got to see KA - Cirque du Soleil. Amazing!!! One of my album companies took us there for a treat. They are incredible! Thank you KISS ;-)

We also have a lot of things brewing here at David Burke Photographers and have decided to run a Super Special for our Children's Sessions during the month of April. Here are the details:

Here is the skinny:

• No Session Fee! - That's right, we are waiving our normal session fee of $200.00 on our WEEKDAY sessions. This means that your session has to take place between Monday through Friday.


• Subject to our Availability (so if you are considering booking a session, Book Now :-)!!


• Session Location: Your choice. We do all on-location photography. Your home, A park, Church, School, etc... Your Pick!


• View our this blog and Our Portfolio for some samples of our children's work.


• When you call to schedule we will talk to you about the shoot, schedule the shoot & schedule a viewing session to view the proofs. We may even get crazy and have the viewing session on location if time allows.


• Please call us 412.979.7525 or email us info@davidburkephoto.com for more information or to book a session!

If we can help you, please let us know. PS - Tell your friends!!! :)

Here is one of my recent fav's... She is so adorable!

New Site and Vegas!

Out of the office from March 15 - 21




We are in the process of implementing a new website! We have decided to make our blog the first thing our viewers see because it is updated the most and gets the most traffic :-) The Portfolios will be consolidated to one 'Flash' page with multiple galleries for kids/weddings, etc.. We hope you enjoy! Please bear with us while we work out the bugs.

One of the bugs is with our email.. I am unable to set up an auto-responder at the moment, so you know that I am not ignoring you :-)

I will be out of the office from March 15 - 21, because I am attending WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) in Las Vegas. This is the years biggest convention for my industry and I make it a point to attend every year. I always come away with more knowlege, inspiration and more friends. I love connecting with old friends and making new ones.

During this time I will have limited access to email/phone and blogging. If you need to contact me, please leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Thank you,

David.

Bryleigh is much cuter than me :-) (and some Photo taking tips)

So Cute, originally uploaded by burkedt.

I just love having a daughter. She is so stinkin cute. Her face is perfectly round. I think she looks just like mommy. I can only hope! Mommy is so beautiful!

*Tech note* (and a few tips!)
Window Light Right
Nikkor 50 1.4

ISO 400
f-stop 2.0
shutter 1/100
WB - 5300K

When I am shooting available light, To nail my exposure I typically pick an ISO that I want to use. After that, Aperture is most important to ME so I then select that (I like large apertures 1.4 - 2.8). Then, I dial in the correct shutter speed for a good exposure (using my viewfinder meter) and finally set the correct white balance (I use my RGB histogram on my LCD for review). After a test shot or two, I am off shooting. At this point I am thinking about composition and focus-points, etc...

When recomposing your image ALWAYS be aware of what is in your viewfinder, because it can affect the overall exposure. You may need to adjust your shutter speed to compensate.

I will post some examples later.

David being David.

My Good Friend Heather Grabbed this Beautiful shot of me this past Saturday!

Carnegie Music Hall - Wedding

Hello everyone!

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of shooting a wedding at the Carnegie Music Hall with two of my great friends, Joanne Bartone and Heather Lahtinen. If you haven't checked them out, be sure to do so. They are such wonderful people and fantastic photographers.

Joanne called upon us to assist her on this fabulous wedding.

I put together a little slideshow of some of my favorite captures of the day. I LOVE being a second/third shooter. I get to play a bit. This wedding allowed me to be completely Organic and capture everything realtime, just the way I love it.

This wedding was filled with great people, fabulous details, excellent location and was topped off with an after party, complete with a Martini Bar and hand rolled cigar table. So cool!!!

Please check out the show and let me know what you think! To see it BIG Click Here

The power of Faith and Love

I recently came across this site Confessions of a CF* Husband, which is the blog of Nathan Lawrenson who is married to Patricia Kirschner that suffers from Cystic Fibrosis. The link takes you to the "Fast Track" section of the site to get you quickly up to speed on their story.

Reading this story and the blog entries totally grips my heart and makes me realize how much I love my wife and children. Nathan's Faith in God and Love for Patricia and Gwenyth (born at 24 weeks gestation) keeps him moving forward. He has really gotten to know God through this ordeal. That is key with faith. It is hard to "just get more faith", but when you take the time to know God better your faith will grow.

Their story is very touching, but is such a story of strength and perseverance that it will make us all stronger.

God Bless Nathan, Patricia, Gwenyth and their families!

Newborn Photo Session

Our new niece, Julia turned 1 week old today. We headed over for a newborn session. My goodness is she beautiful. As I have said before...God is Good!!







I LOVE her skin tone.


Tech Stuff:
All images shot with available window light
ISO 400-640
f 1.8 - 3.2
shutter 1/125 - 1/250
First two had Kodak Tmax 400 action from Alien Skin Exposure 2 run on them.

Interview with Michael Gerber

Michael Gerber, Author of The E-Myth, was recently interviewed by Tim Ferriss. It is an excellent read for you budding entrepreneurs out there. Gerber has a new book coming out on March 4 "Awakening the Entrepreneur Within". I will be picking up a copy of this book too. The E-Myth is one of my all time favorite business books. He has a way of writing that really gets your fire going for success.

One thing he touches on that is VERY VERY important is that successful entrepreneurs today, seek Meaning rather than Money. This is not to say that the entrepreneur is not interested in money, but money without meaning is too big a price to pay. I cannot agree more.

Meaning is what has driven me to continually create and improve my business and purpose. We all need money, but the meaning of making a positive difference in people's lives far outways the weight of any dollar I can ever make.

Hi

bryhat, originally uploaded by burkedt.

Author Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss, author of "The 4-Hour Workweek" has a great blog that I subscribe to and read whenever he has an update. I have read the book and refer to it often to stay "fired up". His blog is a great supplement to the book. He is currently working on a second revision of "The 4-Hour Workweek" due later this year or early next. I will be certain to pick it up. If you have not read the book, you should!

His blog has lots of cool information and is just different from all things photography. Check it out sometime.

Tim Ferriss' Blog

Julia Prudence Schumacher

The Schumachers, originally uploaded by David Burke.

I am an uncle again! My Brother in law, Darren and his wife Erin (my assistant) welcomed Julia today at 1:28pm. She is SOOOO cute and has so much hair! You can see more at my Flickr Page


Welcome Julia we love you!!!